Health care is more than medicine

Documentary, panel address ways to improve U.S. system

By Lydia Seabol AvantStaff Writer

Published: Monday, March 4, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 10:29 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA | The American health care system can change for the better, but it’s up to leaders to spark a conversation about real change and it’s up to people to take initiative for their own health, according to a panel of speakers Sunday at the Bama Theatre.

The University of Alabama sponsored a free screening of the documentary “Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare,” which first appeared at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

The film examines weaknesses in the health system in the U.S. and possible ways to create a sustainable health system. Part of the problem, according to the film, is that the medical system is on a pay-per-service model and that care is too focused on prescription medicine, high-cost technology and high-cost procedures.

During the screening, more than 400 people packed the Bama Theatre, which had few empty seats. The film was followed by the panel discussion, with Bryan Kindred, CEO of the DCH Health System; Linda House Moncrief, benefits and wellness director for the city of Tuscaloosa; Charles Morgan, senior vice president for Phifer Inc.; Deborah Tucker, CEO of Whatley Health Services; and Dr. Allen Perkins, professor and chair of the department of family medicine at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine.

Education of the public about health care issues is an important part in improving the system, and having people try to embrace healthier lifestyles, Tucker said. Too often, patients expect prescriptions to solve their problems.

“I challenge people to hire a physician to prescribe something other than medication,” Tucker said. “We need to take responsibilities for ourselves, change our lifestyle or go some other route.”

The documentary focused on unconventional ways that companies like Safeway, a grocery store chain, are helping to improve their employee’s health by encouraging healthier lifestyles through deductions in insurance costs.

The city of Tuscaloosa is now researching “wellness vendors” to work with city employees in an attempt to reduce the number of employees who are overweight, smoking or have chronic diseases that can be managed with healthier lifestyles. City leaders hope that, by influencing city employees to make healthier choices, it will reduce health care costs, and serve as an example for the rest of the community.

“In the past five years, the increase in (medical) costs became so dramatic that the mayor and council have said something had to be done,” Moncrief said. “The city of Tuscaloosa wants to reach out to the rest of the city to make it a bright spot to live and work and bring it into a wellness focus.”

The could mean making it a city where people choose to walk their children to school, bike to work or a place where people choose to buy fruits and vegetables from a farmers market, she said.

Part of the problem in the health care industry in Alabama is that Medicare and Medicaid funding is being cut, and the system doesn’t work as it should. In order for the system to care for Alabamians, especially in the rural areas, the Medicare system in the state needs to be expanded, panelists said.

“We see over 120,000 patients at Northport Medical Center and DCH Regional Medical Center,” said Bryan Kindred, CEO of the DCH Health System.

Ultimately, hospitals are faced with finding ways to cut costs while providing the service that patients need.

“The system is changing. We are taking care of the same number of patients and having to look at costs. Is the high cost of technology and medication really worth it?”

Cuts in Medicare and Medicaid are hurting the smaller, rural hospitals the most, Kindred said. It will also have a negative impact on centers like Maude Whatley, Tucker said, where more than 50 percent of the patients are uninsured.

“If expansion of Medicaid doesn’t happen, I know what’s going to happen,” Tucker said. “In organizations like ours, we will cut back in services and have to get down to that core business, but we won’t be able to do those as well.”

Some of the services that help encourage people to live healthier lifestyles will have to be cut and less time will be spent with patients, Tucker said.

Gov. Robert Bentley has said that Alabama’s Medicaid system is broken, Perkins said.

“But without it, our rural hospitals won’t exist,” Perkins said.

There are 50 small hospitals in the state that are integral to serving the daily medical needs of people in rural Alabama, Kindred said.

“From DCH’s perspective, it makes sense for them to stay open and continue,” Kindred said.

The mortality rate from accidents is extremely high in rural areas, especially areas without a hospital nearby, Tucker said.

It’s important that the small, rural hospitals continue, and they depend on Medicaid funding, Tucker said.

“There is an absolute need for it to happen,” Tucker said.

The movie screening and panel discussion was the first event of its kind hosted by UA’s Capstone College of Nursing, the College of Community Health Sciences, Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, the Office of Health Promotion and Wellness and the School of Social Work.

“I hope this is the first part of an ongoing event to change the health care system to get a healthier population and to get more value out of (the system),” said Dr. Richard Streiffer, dean of the College of Community Health Sciences at UA.

It’s one way to bring about change, he said.

“It’s part education and awareness, and that is part of it, to get different types of people together and to discuss it,” Streiffer said.